Some time on Friday night, Afghan National Policemen opened fire on a joint Afghan-US patrol in the Kapisa Province of Afghanistan. The troops returned fire, killing two of the police in what has been described as a case of mistaken identity. The coalition says the...
Israeli General: Iran Capable of Creating Nuclear Bomb
Speaking at an Israeli cabinet meeting today, Military Intelligence chief Major-General Amos Yadlin declared that Iran "has crossed the technological threshold, so that reaching a military nuclear ability is only a matter of matching the strategy to the goal of...
Pakistani Military Touts Victory in Bajaur
The Pakistani military showed off its previously declaring victory in the tiny Bajaur Agency today, showing off a captured (and largely destroyed) marketplace and declaring "the resistance has been broken down," providing a rare upnote to the military's ongoing, and...
12,000 US Troops to Leave Iraq by September
The US military announced today that 12,000 troops, less than 10 percent of the overall US presence on the ground, will be leaving Iraq in the next 6 months. The announcement that the long-promised pullout will continue at a snail's pace was further marred, however,...
Supreme Court Ruling Limits President’s Power to Detain Legal Residents
Though they left open the question of presidential orders to detain legal residents by refusing to take up the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, the Supreme Court made a significant statement against such detentions by vacating a split 2008 decision by the Court of...
US Blames Afghan Weather for Taliban Success
Considering 2008 was the most violent year in Afghanistan since the 2001 American invasion and predictions that 2009 would be even worse, it hardly seems a shock that the winter of 2008-09 has been quite a bit more violent than normal. Yet Colonel Pete Johnson gave...
Pakistan’s Taliban ‘Calls the Shots’ in Swat Valley
Details of a 17-point plan for Swat Valley agreed to earlier this week between Pakistani forces and Sufi Muhammad, head of the Tehreek-e Nafaz-e Shariat-e Mohammad (TNSM) weren't made immediately available at the time of its signing, but it seems now that it is just...
Concerns Over Special Forces May Stall Already Limited Iraq Pullout
Most of the previous criticism of President Barack Obama's "pullout" plan from Iraq has centered around it being less a pullout plan than a plan to continue the war indefinitely. But after a week of getting used to the idea that 50,000 troops will remain on the ground...
Clinton: Russia Could Join Missile Defense System
Ahead of her meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton raised a rather unique possible solution for the controversial missile defense system in Eastern Europe. Russia, she insisted, might have the opportunity for "joint...
Supreme Court Dismisses Case on Indefinite Detention of Legal Resident
The Supreme Court today vacated a ruling by the US Court of Appeals in the case of Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri, a legal resident of the United States who was declared by then-President Bush to be an enemy combatant and held without charges for several years. They did...